Exhibit highlights Jacqueline Kennedy's 'Art of the White House Dinner'

Thursday

Jun 28, 2007 at 12:01 AMJun 28, 2007 at 1:25 AM

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has long been a gem along Boston's waterfront. Now, a new exhibit focuses on the sparkling contributions of Jacqueline Kennedy during her husband's presidency, most notably in creating a new style of entertaining at the White House.

By Kristine Diederich

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has long been a gem along Boston's waterfront. Now, a new exhibit focuses on the sparkling contributions of Jacqueline Kennedy during her husband's presidency, most notably in creating a new style of entertaining at the White House.

The exhibit, ``Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner,'' runs through March 30, 2008.

Mrs. Kennedy, one of the youngest first ladies and, arguably, the most stylish, took a keen interest in the history of the White House.

``Jackie inaugurated a whole new way of entertaining,'' said museum curator Frank Rigg. ``(The exhibit) displays the whole entertaining aspect of the Kennedy White House.

``She tried to reclaim the historic feel of the White House. Very few of the furnishings of the White House remained.'' According to Rigg, it had been the custom of former presidents to take furnishings with them when they left the White House. Mrs. Kennedy sought out some of the historic pieces and researched extensively into the way the White House had looked during previous administrations. During her time at the White House, Mrs. Kennedy oversaw the renovations of all of the public rooms.

``(She felt) the White House should be an emblem of the American public, a place America could be proud of,'' Rigg said. ``She had an ulterior motive; the White House should be a stage of promoting American culture.''

Indeed, Mrs. Kennedy broadened the spectrum of invited guests to the prestigious White House state dinners by including writers, actors, university professors and cultural luminaries, along with the military leaders and political figures who traditionally made up the guest lists.

Along with displays of Jacqueline Kennedy's gowns worn at White House dinners - by famous designers of the day like Oleg Cassini and Guy Douvier for Christian Dior - the exhibit includes place settings of china, glassware and flatware that were used at the dinners, plus gifts received from visitors and heads of state from around the world.

Most intriguing, though, are the extensive notes on every possible detail of the dinners. With handwritten entries from Mrs. Kennedy - and a few from the president - in the margins, these documents include seating charts, menus, guest lists and more.

Each seating chart, when finalized, was penned in calligraphy. Guests that came as couples rarely sat together; Mrs. Kennedy carefully assembled each table grouping to include a variety of different people to encourage conversation and unique perspectives. She had a hand in every detail of each dinner, yet, by all outward appearances, she seemed unassuming.

Mrs. Kennedy dreamed that the White House would be America's house, and would showcase all that American intellectuals and cultural figures could offer.

``In many ways, the ways the Kennedys entertained represented American culture,'' Rigg said. ``This was a campaign on her behalf. She hoped to establish a cabinet post, the Minister of Culture, and even had someone chosen - Richard Goodwin, Doris Kearns Goodwin's husband. The announcement (of the post) was planned to happen after they got back from Dallas. It never happened.'' That was November 1963, and President Kennedy was assassinated while on that trip.

But during Kennedy's administration, the American people responded positively to what Mrs. Kennedy was doing at the White House. In addition to a new style of state dinners and restoration of its historic rooms, it included personally hosting the first-ever televised tour broadcast on CBS and introduced by Walter Cronkite. She received an Emmy Award for it.

``It started a whole new trend in how they entertained,'' said Rigg. ``Retrospectively, when people think about Camelot...people looked back on this (the entertaining) as a magical era. People in America weren't used to it.

``The world was emerging from a period of gloom (following the Depression, World War II and the Korean War). This was an era of style that reflected that.''

Among the many noteworthy dinners held at the White House - including those honoring Gov. Luis Munoz Marin of Puerto Rico and Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere - one honoring French Minister of Culture Andre Malraux was particularly significant.

``Giving a dinner for a minister was unusual; they were mostly (for) heads of state,'' said Rigg. ``The French Minister of Culture Andre Malraux exemplified many of the qualities the Kennedys admired, including culture and intelligence. They developed a friendship (with Malraux). Out of it, the Mona Lisa came to the United States. He (Malraux) promised her (Mrs. Kennedy). It was a major triumph for her.''

Mrs. Kennedy, fluent in Spanish and French, more than held her own with foreign dignitaries - and charmed them as well.

Following the dinner for Malraux, there was a thank you letter from actress Geraldine Page, who had been a guest that evening, addressed to ``Dear First Lady.'' In part the note read, ``You remind us all of who we can be and the re-establishing of values in bringing us all to life again.''

Museum visitors seem as interested in Mrs. Kennedy as in the president.

``We'd done `(Jacqueline) Kennedy: The White House Years,' and we thought we'd done that (but) a lot of people didn't see that,'' Rigg said. ``We kept getting requests. We thought we could take a unique aspect of the White House (and present it in this exhibit). People seem quite pleased with this.''

Indeed, on a mid-June Monday morning the exhibit had a steady stream of visitors.

Exiting the exhibit leads visitors to the 115-foot-high glass pavilion facing the Atlantic Ocean. ``I.M. Pei (architect of the JFK Library) called this the meditation pavilion,'' said Rigg.

Visitors are left with this final thought, a quote from JFK's inaugural address printed on the wall of the pavilion: ``All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.''

Prescient and uplifting at the same time.

With thoughts of Camelot - and maybe of what might have been - visitors will surely be pleased at this snapshot in time.

THE ESSENTIALS:
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is located on Columbia Point in Boston, near the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Hours are daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed only New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, $7 for ages 13 to 17, and free for children 12 and under. Parking is free.
For more information, call 866-JFK-1960 or visit www.jfklibrary.org.

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